Education becomes political battleground

The Government says the Budget is an Education Budget, with a bold $5 billion endowment plan for higher education at its core. But in his first parliamentary response, Kevin Rudd has attacked the Government for delivering a Budget that actually reduced the expenditure on education in percentage terms over the next four years. In real terms though education spending is going up. Whatever the semantics, its clear education is one of the key battlegrounds of the next few months.

Transcript

KERRY O'BRIEN: Welcome to the program. Clever has become one of the more abused words in politics of late. Is John Howard a clever politician? Does Peter Costello's budget make him a 'clever boy', as one newspaper headline put it today, or is Kevin Rudd 'too clever by half' as the Prime Minister suggested today?

The Government said it was the education budget, with a bold five billion dollar endowment plan for higher education at its core, but in his first parliamentary response to last night's fiscal statement, the Labor leader attacked the Government for delivering a budget that has actually reduced spending on education in percentage terms over the next four years. In real terms though, education spending is going up.

Whatever the semantics, its clear education is going to be one of the key battlegrounds for the next few months, and the Government now claims to have trumped Labor's education revolution with one of its own. Political editor Michael Brissenden reports.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Yes, it's the day after the night before. The Budget is the Treasurer's moment, and the practised practitioner of this art leaves no microphone untroubled. No corner of the broadcast world is left wanting. The Prime Minister told his party room not to expect any immediate boost from this year's number crunching, but clearly the foot soldiers of the back bench are feeling a lot better today than they were a few weeks ago. Costello's clever mix of bribes, sweeteners and bold new vision has all of them feeling they are now back in the game. For some, the relief has let loose a flourish of creative imagery.

DON RANDALL, LIBERAL BACKBENCHER: I liken Mr Rudd to a sparkler. It's all glitz and it's fascinating everybody, but eventually it goes out and you've got a burnt stick in the end. But compare that with John Howard who is like the eternal flame. Steady, constant and always there doing the right job.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: But as we said, this is the Treasurer's day. And a half. And doesn't he know it.

REPORTER: I'm just wondering after twelve Budgets, do you think the Prime Minister is the eternal flame?

PETER COSTELLO, FEDERAL TREASURER: (Laughs) Well what did he call me? A penny bunger?

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The real question is, will the Budget put a much needed rocket under the Government's standing in the polls? Budgets don't, as a rule, have much of an immediate impact. It took until August for the polls to improve temporarily after last year's big giveaway. But after so many good years, tax cuts have become just a routine expectation.

But this was an election year Budget, no doubt about that. And the centre piece of the whole thing was a creative idea for an education endowment, a five billion dollar fund that will deliver at least $300 million a year in income on the interest earned to be used for capital works and research facilities. A way to put a big whack of the surplus to use without fuelling inflation. And more importantly, a way to politically neutralise one of Labor's strengths: Kevin Rudd's 'education revolution'.

JOHN HOWARD, PRIME MINISTER: This is an education revolution of which this country can be very proud, Mr Speaker.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Last week's spectacular backflip on WorkChoices, and the Government's move to storm the barricades of education are certainly about smoothing the path to an election. But the education endowment is also clever policy. It fits the Government's ideological parameters, and it's certainly gone down well with the universities.

PROFESSOR GERARD SUTTON, AUSTRAILAN VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COMMITTEE: They've made it deliberately broad, so that all universities in this country can compete for the fund and benefit from it. It's a great initiative.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: And presumably you would want to see this remain regardless of the outcome of the next election?

PROFESSOR GERARD SUTTON: Ah, yes, I would hope that Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith would... I'm sure they will, agree, that this is a significant initiative. And they would want to hold onto it.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Kevin Rudd says he thinks it's not a bad idea. But in revolutionary terms, he dismissses it as little more than a mild insurrection that misses the mark.

KEVIN RUDD, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Well, it's dealing with the university crisis which the Government has created through its disinvestment over a long period of time. But when we talk about education revolution, it's this: early childhood education. How do you actually get in the door of a university to start with? You've got to acquire your literacy and numeracy on the way through. Not one dollar in this Budget goes to that.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: And in Parliament, education remains the focus of the Opposition attack. Trawling through the tables and figures in the Budget paper reveals that in percentage terms, education spending will actually fall over the four years, from 7.7 per cent in 2006, to 7.4 per cent in 2010. Well yes, but the Prime Minister says the premise of the attack is wrong. The percentage may drop, but the amount of money being spent will rise. Simply because some other areas of the Budget like defence may take up more of future spending.

JOHN HOWARD: That doesn't prove, as the Leader of the Opposition is trying to allege, that we have in fact cut government spending. I mean the whole point of this tawdry exercise, and it is a tawdry exercise, by the Leader of the Opposition, is to try and establish the fact, Mr Speaker, that we have in fact reduced spending on education. We have in fact done the complete reverse, and education spending is going to rise over the next four years by more than 3 per cent, 3.5 per cent in real times a year Mr Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition is just trying to be too clever by half.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Speaking of clever, a loaded political word these days, who was it who actually came up with the endowment idea in the first place? Revolutionary or not, it's certainly innovative, and last night the Treasurer was the one taking all the credit.

TONY JONES: You said in a press conference that it was actually your idea, so I'm just wondering, is there no one else who could take credit for this except for Peter Costello?

PETER COSTELLO: Well the idea of setting up the fund was my idea because I thought we could invest. I didn't want to get to a situation Tony where we just went out and spent a Budget surplus.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: 'The Australian' newspaper though carried reports that it in fact was Julie Bishop who came up with endowment proposal after visiting Harvard in the US. Some senior Vice-Chancellors were also under the impression that it was the Education Minister herself who pushed this through the Cabinet process. Today, Mr Costello seemed prepared the share ownership of the brilliance.

PETER COSTELLO: I think I said last night that I had thought up the fund, which I had. But you know, success has many fathers. So I'm willing to go father, and Julie can go mother. And we can both claim parentage.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Whoever it was who came up with it, it has presented a challenge for Labor. It is a big iconic idea, no doubt there will be similar big picture proposals in the coming months on the other policy territory that has been Labor's up until now, climate change. That's another big crack in the path the Government will want to fill before there is an election. Labor's challenge is to match that with sensible, carefully crafted vision of their own. The first opportunity to do that presents itself tomorrow night in the Budget reply speech. The word is, Kevin Rudd aims to use it to present some bold policy initiatives of his own. He knows he needs to.